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Friday, September 24, 2010

Not too shabby this week!! Good on most things, a little lax on others. But overall, I feel like it was a very productive and well spent week. We got a visit from my parents AND Alyssa and Brent on the same night, and it was the highlight of our whole week! Wish we could make it more regular occurrence!

1. SMILE AND BE NICE... you laugh, but this is really hard for me these days.

Woo Hoo!!! Other than kids in obvious trouble who would be confused by a smile, I was pretty good this week!

2. Get through the first week of TOG History/Bible/Geography and stay on track.

I LOVE TOG! The kids were really engaged and even asked for some extra work! We did great!

3. Keep up the pace with Anatomy~ it's quite a bit of work and information, but soooo worth it!

We decided that the days we had it scheduled were not quite right, so we'll try new days next week!

4. Get the cabinet in the garage at least halfway done~ I'll post before and after pics when it's done!

Almost there, we had a few surprises in the evenings this week (like my mom and dad coming over for dinner...that was a GREAT surprise) so I didn't get as far as I would have liked.

5. Really read and meditate on God's words.

Still working on this one... seems like the harder I try, the harder the devil fights me!

6. Put at least 3 meals in the freezer fro this winter.

I got one in!!! So, not too shabby!

7. Listen to my book on my MP3 player, and possibly get past the first 6 chapters LOL

NOPE!!! Too busy schooling those darn kids!

8. Exercise in the mornings, I really need the extra energy right now, so I have to start taking care of myself.

See number 5!!

9. Go to the Farmers Market on Saturday

Not there yet, but still planning on it!

10. Keep my cool, don't freak out, find my happy place, whatever it takes to keep ahead of the RADlings! This goes in line with #1!

I am soo proud of myself, I really didn't lose my cool this week!! Even with both RADlings putting in overtime this week! GOOOO MOM!!!

Thursday, September 23, 2010

I have decided not to focus on the negative today and be thankful for the people and situations in my life. For example, I used to view homeschooling my herdlings as a chore. Just something else to do in a day. It flew in the face of the very reasons I chose to homeschool in the first place, this drudgery. I have decided to find JOY in the dailyness of our school adventures. Notice I said decided. It takes a conscious decision to chose joy over dwelling on the negative. The negative is so easy to get swallowed up in. The fights, the whining, the outright defiance. BUT, if I choose the joy for my focus I see hands happily at work, eyes lighting with a new discovery, hearts softened by spending time in learning with their mom and siblings, and sooo much more. The more I focus on the joy, it seems to multiply like the loaves and fishes. It amazes me! It astounds me! It breaks my heart that for so long I let the devil steal my joy, while I focused on all the I can'ts and I don't want to's. So, my new habit is going to be recording the thankfulness every Thursday for all the world to see. Today I am thankful for JOY in homeschooling my herdlings! Join me in choosing JOY this week! May you be blessed into amazement at the multiplication of joy when you choose to dwell in it!

Lovely L's happy hands at work

Awesome A2's happy hands at work

Rockin Writer's happy hands at work

Our crazy mummy apple experiment! Just for grins!﻿

Are you willing to join me in Thankful Thursdays???? Leave a comment about the big or small things you are thankful for this week. I'd love to praise the Lord with JOY for your blessings this week!

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

I have to vent or I'm going to explode!!!! Yet another reason I dislike Public School. Miss P is attending Public Kindergarten this year. For reasons too numerous to mention it was decided by our family and a child psychologist that it would be the best for her. (and mommy too) So I go to pick her up from the bus this afternoon, and there is a substitute driver. Now, don't get me wrong... I LOVE our regular driver. She is awesome and then some! This Sub saw me drop Miss P off this morning, I even waved at him as I kissed my girl goodbye. All the other mothers, nannies, and grandmas picked their children up with out a problem. Then again the children all had similar skin tone to their respective caregivers. My poor little brown baby was stopped and told to point out her momma. Bad enough, but this gets better. I was asked for my licence, which of course I didn't have with me. Who takes their licence to the bus stop??? I told him I did NOT have my licence and yes I was her mother. Every parent, grandparent, and nanny there told the man! Not good enough~ I had to make the trek 4 minute trek home to get my licence while my baby sat on the bus and wondered why in the world SHE was different than all the other kids. I got to the bus, and asked him point blank if I had been black if he would have even bothered to ask. I was informed it is because she is a Kindergartner... seriously, cause the other Kindergartner at our stop got off with his same color mommy without a problem! He then tried to TAKE my licence out of my hand! I told him, that he could read it just fine in my hand, so there was no need. As we walked home, I was furious! I then called the transportation department to complain, only to be told that he has the right to keep her on the bus if I do not have my ID and return her to the school! Rules are rules, but only if you don't look like your child! Poor Miss P is very confused, like her life isn't hard enough as it is! So now, I have to keep my drivers licence with me at the bus stop~ JUST IN CASE we have a sub~ and most likely lose it in the process, cause I'm just wired that way! GRRRRRRR

I often miss the small details in life. You know, the extra load of laundry, the dust motes floating through my house, the spider webs in the corners. I just don't see them. I'm way too focused on the big stuff like how to manage our lives, homeschool, and basic stuff like remembering to feed my family. Yesterday Lovely L reminded me of the beauty found in the little things I so rarely see anymore, so I thought I'd share her little things with you. She found beauty and peace in such tiny little details that I just never see. She took the camera and went on one of her nature walks on our street. I was amazed at the detail and quality of the images she captured. All this without my guidance or encouragement. I am humbled by her insight and proud of her accomplishment.

Thank you daughter for reminding me of the simple beauty in the little details of our CRAZY life!

Friday, September 17, 2010

1. Most Important EVER... Keep a lid on my temper this week (I'm really working on finding my sillly)

I did pretty well on this one is I must say so myself! Used my brain for some serious therapeutic parenting techniques yesterday when Miss P came home from school with a note from her teacher~ she landed on RED for trying to deceive both myself and the teacher! Whew! I kept my cool and gave her an opportunity to make it right (she chose not to) and she actually told me she was angry with me! BIG stuff for her, she is usually scared to admit anger towards me!

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Woo Hoo!!!! I started Science with the kids today! They are pretty happy with it and so am I. We talked today about the history of anatomy and physiology, including how the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Hebrews all contributed to our current knowledge about the human body! Fun Stuff! I think my favorite part about this science program is the affirmation of God's work in all creation... in every detail of it! The kids had a great time drawing pictures of what they learned about in their notebooks, and writing down all the facts they learned.... while mommy finished baking daddy's birthday cake.

Birthday Cake... almost half gone before Two in the afternoon

Big Daddy hard at work on his Birthday

Yesterday we had our best friends over for the afternoon! It was a blast! We went ahead with our plans to do art... what a circus! We made art and made each other look like art as well. Most everyone ended up with pastels smeared all over! The tornados we put on paper ended up all over us as well, and the floor, and the table, and the chairs, and well... you get the idea!

The girls have been working steadily on their writing and reading skills all summer, as well as their math through our online program ALEKS. We may actually get caught up by mid-year! We took several years to work on some problem areas that each of the kids had, so we're trying to catch back up on the basics! I am VERY proud of the progress they have both made in their deficient areas! All in all it's been a great week in the homeschool realm! Looking forward to our day at Co-op tomorrow!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

We have been working with Pastels for the past week. Jump on over to Tricia's blog and leave her some love! She is a truly wonderful homeschool mom, and has blessed us by sharing her mother's talent with pastels! Here are our first tries following Nana's direction:

Momma's first try... pretty happy with it!

Rockin' Writer~ she has fallen in love with Pastels

Lovely L~ Wow! I am so excited to see how well she listened to direction

A2~ He did VERY well considering he didn't like the feel of the chalk

Some other Pastels the kids and I have done this week... can't wait until the lesson this afternoon!

Lovely L's aerial beach picture

Another view of the beach from Lovely L

Rockin' Writer's been jumping ahead in the lessons~ here is her tornado

Another Rockin' Writer art piece

And last of all... Momma's try at a Texas Landscape courtesy of a picture I took at the Farm

I was in denial! I thought our little RADling was having a pretty good run until this last week. I knew starting Kindergarten would set her back a ways, but I was unprepared for how it would affect her and the rest of our family as well. It has affected EVERYONE!

Lets begin at the beginning. Miss P was having a good first week at school, and even a pretty good second week. This last week she let it ALL hang out! She started last week with the usual pee/hygiene issues. We try not to let those get to us for the most part, but come on, after a while you just start to lose it! By the weekend it had progressed from hygiene to flat out peeing in her bed and sitting in it for hours- on purpose people. She woke up early and decided to pee her clothes and bed... while wearing a pull-up! But, I'm getting ahead of myself. On Thursday, I went to get her from her room time after school, and looked around to see quite a few things in her room that did not belong to her, most of them chewed beyond repair. I asked about them, and of course, received a lie. "They were here when I got home" ummmm... yeah, sure they were! Some time later, I got what I believe is the truth. She was sneaking out of her room at night, taking toys from the play room, and hiding them in her room to chew on later. This after her clogging the toilet with toilet paper in the middle of the night. When asked why she thought it was ok for her to get up in the middle of the night, she replied...

"I heard the bath water, so you and daddy were in the bath" (Yes, we bathe together most nights, it's our only time alone all day). Upon further investigation, she has been getting up most nights to do who knows what! And better still she had been pack ratting all kinds of things under her dresser that didn't belong to her! So off I went to get an alarm for her door. I thought we had a better handle on things than we do. I was wrong. One of the first things I read when I figured out Miss P had RAD was to get a door alarm. Silly me, I thought that was just for the serious hard core kids... guess I was way off base. I took all of the things she could destroy away, and left her with a few very basic toys. I feel like such a meanie! So, by Sunday morning when she peed the bed and laid/wallowed in it, and told me it was because she was too scared to open her door and go to the bathroom... let me tell you I just. about. LOST IT! Just in case you are wondering, I have ALL the kids pee before they go to bed, and we get nothing to drink after 8 o'clock. She had peed, by my estimation of the dampness of her bed and clothes, around 3 hours earlier... WAAAY before she usually gets up and has to pee! I know for alot of you this is TMI, but if it helps some of you out there understand where we are, then so be it.

To add to this little gem of a week, Lil C is going through a really tough adjustment period. He has started Pre-K two days a week and is going with us to Co-op on Fridays. He is very unsure about being away from me so often. Sadly, that usually means when he is around me, I get beat up on, whined at, and generally abused. He has been so very hard to take this last two weeks. I know it sounds like the usual three year old stuff, but if you could see the loathing in his eyes, you would know different. I spend most of my time with him trying to hold and comfort him while he rails against me and whines that he wants me at the same time. All the while, he is trying to throw himself on the floor and pitch a tantrum. His little brain is so conflicted. His impulse control is almost nothing these days, little people have been flying in all directions, so we mostly duck and cover! It's crazy!

And poor A2 is not handling these transitions much better, although, he is coming back around the bend much faster than we expected. He misses his little brother and sister dearly when they are gone. He mopes around here like a lost ghost. Unfortunately he has headed back down the familiar path of telling you what he thinks you want to hear anytime you ask him a question. That usually leads to lies and fabrications on his part, and much gnashing of the teeth on his parents part. I have been distracting him with lots of new school work, and he seems to be coming through it, so we're just keeping our fingers crossed.

So, now you know, and knowing is half the battle! Just so you know, this week is starting out a little better so far. No major tantrums and no PEEEEEE! Yea me!

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Just a quick update! It has been a VERY long week and a half! Sorry for not posting, I've just been in the trenches with all the backlash from the little bit of love I saw from miss P! Seems everyone in our family has decided to dysregulate at the same time. In case you were wondering, there is NO fun in dysfunctional! As of now, we have an alarm on Miss P's door for reasons I'll detail in a later post, Awesome A2 is lying and when he's not lying, he's not talking, Lil C is violent and angry all the time, Lovely L is having what we think is a relapse of her Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and Eldest A is just too excited about her upcoming weekend with her best friend to bother being dysfunctional right now(even with the purple monster syndrome looming). And me??? I've had my yearly visit to the hoochy doctor, and lets say it was the WORST experience I've ever had in regards to this type of visit! So all in all, I'm hoping to get back to the regularly scheduled programming by Monday! Hope this weekend finds you all well and having more fun than me!

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Where did this Herd come from?

I am a homeschool mom to 5 Beautiful kids but first and foremost, I am wife to an amazing man. How we got here is an adventure in learning to trust in God's word, both written, and softly spoken in our ears. OK, sometimes he yells so loud our house burns down, but we like to think we're better listeners now.